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Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. When Edith first steps into Blue Sky House, she feels her husband Joseph’s presence everywhere, and she experiences the house as “forthright and decent and kind.” When Clare enters the house decades later, she also feels a human presence. Have you ever found a house or some other specific place to have a personality?

2. Clare admires her fiancée, Zach, as a person who “tries so hard to be good,” even when it doesn’t come easily to him, and she appreciates his desire to be different from his cold, judgmental family. Have you ever known a person like this? Do you understand why Clare would be attracted to these qualities?

3. What do you make of Clare’s relationship with Zach?

4. Edith and Joseph are both photographers. How do their photographs reflect their personalities?

5. Edith feels that she does not “fit” into the social world of small town 1950s. Can you relate to her discomfort?

6. When Edith and Joseph see the flock of white herons take flight, Joseph says, “’That was you. You, you. That’s what you have been to me. Exactly.’” What do you think he means by this?

7. What do you make of Edith’s decision to take George Graham up on his proposal, in spite of the risks?

8. Why do you think Edith decides to start keeping the “shadow ledger”?

9. What do you think of Clare’s relationship with Dev? Do you understand her decision to go to a different college from him and later to break up with him?

10. Why do you think Clare decides to ask Dev to help her solve the mystery of Blue Sky House?

11. What do you make of Edith’s friendship with John?

12. When Clare is out in Edith’s canoe, she has the realization that “[S]ome things you decide and some things you choose and some things just are.” Do you know what she means? Have you ever felt this way?

13. Early in the novel, Joseph tells Edith, “I’ll be your blue sky.” Later, Edith tells Clare, “The ones who look like home are home. They’re where you go.” Do these sentiments resonate with you?